System and method for collecting, storing, managing and providing categorized information related to a document object

ABSTRACT

A method and system for enabling users of a network to create, store, and provide access to relationships between document objects stored on the network. The method may include the steps for allowing a user of the network to create a link relationship between a first document object and a second document object; for storing the link relationship in one or more link directories; and for providing all users of the network access to the link relationships stored in the one or more link directories based upon the document object currently accessed by the users. The system may include one or more client devices that access document objects stored on the network and create link relationships between the first document object and the second document object; and one or more servers that store and filter the link relationships created by the client devices and transmit one or more link relationships and link references to the client devices.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of, and incorporates by reference,U.S. Provisional Application Nos. 60/273,520 and 60/282,470, filed Mar.7, 2001 and Apr. 10, 2001 respectively.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The technical field is relating documents on computer networks andstoring, indexing and presenting those relationships to network users.

BACKGROUND

Networks connecting many computers offer users access to a wide varietyof information. Computers are exceptional devices for storing, sortingand relating large amounts of information. Information is stored oncomputers and networked computing and storage devices as documents orobjects, together referred to as document objects. Such document objectsmay contain any form of information, from text documents and articles,financial data, statistical information, electronic mail, images andphotos, music, animation, and even motion pictures.

The Internet, as a network of interconnected networks, offers usersaccess to an even broader collection of information—the Worldwide Web(the “Web”). On the Web, publishers offer information for educational,recreational, and commercial purposes. The Internet, and it'spredominant Web form, is organized and accessed by assigning documentobjects an address, or Uniform Resource Locater (“URL”). These URLsdefine the transfer protocol for and location of each individualdocument object on the Internet, or other network, including theInternetworking Protocol (“IP”) address of the host computer system ofthe document object.

Users accessing computer networks and the Internet are generallyrequired to perform their own searches across the networks for theinformation, stored as document objects, that they desire or need. Asthe amount of information available on computer networks, and on theInternet in particular, grows exponentially, existing search andinformation location techniques become increasingly less effective.Existing Internet search techniques often yield too many seeminglyrelated references which are not, in fact, truly useful to the user. Theusefulness of traditional Internet search and indexing systems isactually decreasing as the number of documents on the Internet explodes.

Existing search, categorization, and retrieval techniques for documentobjects stored on computer networks, while generally executed at thehigh speeds of modern computer systems, are increasingly imprecise andoften much too broad, as well as time and labor intensive, owing to theexplosion of information being added to those networks.

A need exists to enhance the network user's information browsingexperience. A need exists to provide network users with informationrelevant to the individual document object they are accessing andprovide that information in a context of value to them by relating thedocument object they are accessing to link references to other documentobjects within a specific context. Such other document objects may ormay not be offered by the publisher of the document object currentlyaccessed. A need exists to provide network users with informationrelevant to the specific information the user may be searching for andrelevant to the user's immediate personal, professional, geographic andother interests.

A need exists for entities or groups to be able to communicateinformation to their employees or members as those employees or membersaccess document objects on a network, and to enable those employees ormembers to view content deemed important to the entities or groups. Aneed further exists for publishers of content on the Internet to be ableto personalize content presented to Internet users without requiring theestablishment of a personal relationship between the user and thecontent publisher. A need exists to enable the collection of the searchexperiences of a group of users and share that experience with otherusers of networked information devices.

SUMMARY

The systems, apparatus and methods of the present invention (hereinafter“Linkspace”) incorporate and provide many improvements on existingmethods for publishing, distributing, relating and searching documentobjects on computer networks, including the Internet.

Linkspace operates to provide many beneficial improvements in searching,identifying and publishing information over computer networks.

Linkspace permits a user of a computer network or the Internet toestablish relationships between document objects located on the networkor the Internet. Those relationships may comprise link relationships andlink references and are maintained by Linkspace in one or more linkdirectories. The contents of link directories may be organized,categorized, sorted and filtered in groupings based on various criteriarelating to, among other things, user interests and attributes, thetypes of document objects and the nature of the content of thosedocument objects. Linkspace allows a network user to be presented with aselection of links to document objects related to the document objectthe user is currently accessing based upon the URL of the currentdocument object, and link relationships created by the user and otherusers of the network stored in the link directories.

When a network user equipped with Linkspace identifies and locates afirst document object on the network that is of interest to her, she mayinitiate one method of the present invention to mark the location,through its URL, as a start point of a link relationship. When sheaccesses a second document object on the network that she considersrelevant to the first document object, she initiates another step of onemethod of the invention to mark the second document object as an endpoint of the link relationship. Upon marking the second document objectas the end point, the link relationship is created and stored on a linkdirectory selected to store similar link relationships. When a secondnetwork user equipped with Linkspace, and with access to the linkdirectory, accesses the first document object, he is then presented witha link to the second document object as a relevant document object thatmay be of interest to him. Likewise, if the second network user accessesthe second document object, he may then be presented with a link to thefirst document object as a relevant document object that may be ofinterest to him.

Linkspace consists primarily of a system and method for creating andpublishing link relationships, a system and method for storing andmanaging link relationships in link directories, and a system and methodfor presenting a network user with links related by link relationshipsto the document object the user is currently accessing.

In one respect what is described is a method for enabling users of anetwork to create, store, and provide access to relationships betweendocument objects stored on the network. The method may include the stepsfor allowing a user of the network to create a link relationship betweena first document object and a second document object; for storing thelink relationship in one or more link directories; and for providing allusers of the network access to the link relationships stored in the oneor more link directories based upon the document object currentlyaccessed by the users.

In another respect what is described is a system for establishing andproviding access to relationships between document objects stored on anetwork wherein the relationship between a first document object and asecond document object may be created by an individual user of thenetwork and provided to other users of the network. The system mayinclude one or more client devices that access document objects storedon the network and create link relationships between a first documentobject and a second document object; and one or more servers that storeand filter the link relationships created by the client devices andtransmit one or more link relationships and link references to theclient devices.

In yet another respect, what is described is a computer readable mediumon which is embedded a program. The embedded program comprises modulesthat execute the above method.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate these and other advantages andbenefits of various embodiments of the invention upon reading thefollowing detailed description of a preferred embodiment with referenceto the below-listed drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The detailed description will refer to the following drawings, whereinlike numerals refer to like elements, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a system according to one embodiment of theinvention;

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a client device which is Linkspace-enabledand its interaction with other hardware and software;

FIG. 3 a is a diagram showing the components of a server which isLinkspace-enabled and its interaction with other hardware and software;

FIG. 3 b is a diagram showing more detail of one embodiment of a userdata store from FIG. 3 a;

FIG. 4 a is a diagram illustrating one embodiment of a link directoryaccording to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 b is a diagram illustrating another embodiment of a linkdirectory according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing one embodiment of the invention implementedon public, private or closed computer networks;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a method according to one embodimentof the invention;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a method for identifying linkrelationships between document objects according to one embodiment ofthe invention; and

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a method for publishing linkrelationships between document objects according to one embodiment ofthe invention.

FIG. 9 is one example screen view of a user interface for a relate linksdialog box according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 10 is an example of a screen view for a client user interfaceaccording to one embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of a system 100 for collecting, storing,managing and providing to network users categorized information relatedto an open document object. A document object may contain any form ofinformation, including text documents and articles, financial data,statistical information, electronic mail, images and photos, music,voice data, animation, and even motion pictures. The system 100 includesa network 10, such as the Internet or other network of interconnectedcomputers or a combination of networks and the Internet; one or moreLinkspace-enabled client devices 20; one or more Linkspace-enabledservers 30, one or more first document objects 40; one or more seconddocument objects 50; one or more link references 42 and 52,corresponding to the first document objects 40 and the second documentobjects 50 respectively; and one or more link relationships 45. Thesystem 100 may also include one or more links 41 and 51 pointing to thefirst document objects 40 and second document objects 50 respectively.The client devices 20, as well as the server 30, are preferablyLinkspace-enabled. The client device 20 may comprise a computer or otherdigital information device running software enabled by the presentinvention to create, filter, sort and display the link references 42,52, and the link relationships 45. The server 30 may comprise a servercomputer or other digital information device running software enablingthe present invention to store, index, search, filter, sort and transmitthe link references 42, 52, and the link relationships 45 to clientdevices 20. The server 30 further comprises one or more link directories35 for storing and indexing information regarding the link relationships45 and link references 42 and 52 developed by the client devices 20 withrespect to the one or more first documents 40 and second documents 50.

The link reference 42, 52 comprises a pointer to one document object 40,50 on the network 10 and attributes associated with that document object40, 50. The link relationship 45 comprises two pointers, one each to thefirst document object 40 and to the second document object 50, andattributes describing characteristics of the relationship between thetwo document objects 40, 50 related by the link relationship 45. Thepointers included in a link relationship 45 may be comprised of pointersto a link reference 42, 52. The link relationship 45 establishes ameaningful relationship between two document objects 40, 50, whereas thelocations of the document objects 40, 50 may be maintained within theLinkspace system 100 by means of the link references 42, 52.

The system 100 shown in FIG. 1 operates to create and store linkrelationships 45. The system 100 creates and stores link relationships45 between a first document object 40 and a second document object 50,preferably on one or more servers 30 in one or more link directories 35in the manner described as follows. The client device 20 is enabled bymeans of software or other devices to request, access and displaydocument objects on the network 10. When the user of a client device 20identifies one first document object 40 of interest to her that shewishes to associate with a second document object 50, she utilizes thesoftware running on the Linkspace-enabled client device 20 to create alink relationship 45 between the first document object 40 and the seconddocument object 50. This link relationship 45 is then stored on theserver 30 in a link directory 35.

In an alternate embodiment, the system 100 may operate to perform thefunctions described above, including the creation of link relationships45 and link references 42, 52, the storing of link relationships 45 andlink references 42, 52, and providing access to and retrieval of linkrelationships 45 and link references 42, 52, by means of automatedprocedures requiring little or no user interaction.

When a client device 20 later requests and accesses a first documentobject 40 for which the server 30 has stored an associated linkrelationship 45 in one or more link directories 35, the server 30delivers to the client device 20 the link references 42 and the linkrelationships 45, along with contextual information, or attributes,associated with the link references 42 and the link relationships 45.The client device 20 then displays to the user of the client device 20the existence of a link relationship 45 between the first documentobject 40 being accessed by the client device 20 and the second documentobject 50. This enables the user of the client device 20 to be madeaware of the second document object 50, the context of the seconddocument object 50, and the context of the relationship between thesecond document object 50 and the first document object 40 as thatrelationship may be of interest to the user of the client device 20while viewing the first document object 40.

Each link relationship 45 may also operate in the reverse direction. Inthis manner, when a user of the client device 20 is accessing the seconddocument object 50 for which an associated link relationship 45 isstored in the one or more link directories 35 on the server 30, theserver 30 then transmits the link references 42 and the linkrelationships 45, with contextual information, to the client device 20.This enables display of the availability of the related first documentobject 40 to the user of the client device 20 with the context of thefirst document object 40, and within the context of its relationship tothe displayed second document object 50.

While the system 100 is generally described as having enabling softwareresident on the client device 20 and on the server 30, various othersoftware configurations are possible, including having all of thesoftware resident at either the server 30 (making the client device 20essentially a “dumb terminal”) or at the client device 20 (making theclient device 20 essentially perform server functions), or varioussoftware sharing arrangements. For example, the client device 20 mayinclude the one or more link directories 35, a communications module(described later in reference to FIG. 3 a), and a user data store thatmay maintain information regarding authorized users of the client device20 (described later in reference to FIGS. 2, 3 a, and 3 b).

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the components of aLinkspace-enabled client device 20 and its interaction with othersoftware and hardware. The client device 20 preferably includes arendering tool 210, such as a web page browser like Microsoft® InternetExplorer, for rendering document objects located on the network 10 anddisplaying those document objects to users of the client device 20; aclient tool 220, for allowing the user of the client device 20 to createand access link relationships 45 between document objects; and a networkaccess tool 240, such as a TCP/IP stack or other interface, for allowingsoftware modules on the client device 20 to connect to and communicatewith other devices and document objects on the network 10. The clientdevice 20 operates primarily to create and present link relationships 45to users.

The rendering tool 210 may store a document object URL address 215 forreferring to the document object currently being accessed and renderedby the rendering tool 210. The rendering tool 210 may also include aGraphic User Interface (“GUI”) display 218, or other type of display,for displaying the document objects accessed and rendered by therendering tool 210. In alternate embodiments of the invention, theclient device 20 may include more than one rendering tool 210 enablingthe user of the client device 20 to access multiple document objects.

The client tool 220 may include a client GUI display 225, or otherdisplay software and hardware, for displaying link references 42, 52 andlink relationships 45 to the user of the client device 20. Typically,the displayed link references 42, 52 and link relationships 45 would bethose link references 42, 52 and link relationships 45 relevant to thedocument object currently being rendered and displayed by the renderingtool 210 (as determined by the document object URL address 215 in therendering tool 210). The client tool 220 may also include Linkspace userprofile data 230 for storing information about the user of the clientdevice 20, the link directories 35 the user may have access to, and theattributes of link references 42, 52, and attributes of linkrelationships 45 that the user may be interested in. The Linkspace userprofile data 230 may also or alternatively be stored on the one or moreservers 30, along with the Linkspace user profile data 230 of all otherusers of the system 100.

An example of how the client device 20 operates to create and presentlink relationships 45 to users of the client device 20 follows. Whilethe network access tool 240 is active and placing the client device 20in communication with the network 10, the user enables the renderingtool 210 and the client tool 220. The user may then request and accessdocument objects stored on the network 10 by means of the rendering tool210. Through the GUI display 218, the users enters or otherwise selectsa document object URL address 215 associated with the first documentobject 40 of interest to the user. The client tool 220 connects to anduses the rendering tool 210 and accesses the document object URL address215 associated with the first document object 40. The client tool 220then establishes contact with the server 30 and passes to the server 30the stored document object URL address 215 associated with the firstdocument object 40, along with any relevant information that may comefrom the Linkspace user profile data 230. The connection to the server30 may be initiated through the network access tool 240 or by othermeans not utilizing the network access tool 240.

The Linkspace-enabled server 30 searches the link directories 35 for anyURLs in the link references 42, 52 matching, or similar to, the documentobject URL address 215. After searching, the server 30 retrieves the oneor more link relationships 45 that include the document object URLaddress 215. Prior to searching, the URLs may be stripped of anyinformation not relevant to the location of the document object 40, 50on the network 10. Such information not relevant to the location of thedocument object 40, 50 may include query strings or other data attachedto URLs for tracking or other purposes.

The server 30 then determines the link references 42, 52 which may be ofinterest to the user of the client device 20 by filtering the retrievedlink references 42, 52 using the Linkspace user profile data 230 and theattributes assigned to the link references 42, 52 and to the linkrelationships 45. The filtering of link references 42, 52 and linkrelationships 45 may be accomplished by one of several methods offiltering data including matching, character and Boolean comparing, andother data comparison and filtering methods. The server 30 thentransmits to the client tool 220 the filtered link references 42, 52included in the one or more link relationships 45. The client tool 220presents the transmitted link references 42, 52 within the contextestablished by the link relationships 45 by means of the client GUIdisplay 225.

To create a new link relationship 45, the user of the client device 20must select a first document object 40 to begin the link relationship, asecond document object 50 to complete the link relationship 45, andassign attributes to the link references 42, 52 and the linkrelationship 45 between the two document objects 40, 50. To select afirst document object 40 to begin the new link relationship 45, the userinteracts with the client GUI display 225 to activate a function of theclient tool 220 to capture the document object URL address 215associated with the first document object 40. To select a seconddocument object 50 to complete the new link relationship 45, the usermay interact with the GUI display 218 of the rendering tool 210 torequest, access and display the second document object 50. The user maythen interact with the client GUI display 225 again to activate afurther function of the client tool 220 to capture the document objectURL address 215 associated with the second document object 50,completing the selection of document objects 40, 50 participating in thenew link relationship 45. Once the two document objects 40, 50 areestablished, attributes of the link references 42, 52 and the new linkrelationship 45 may be assigned.

The user may select or otherwise specify attributes associated with thelink references 42, 52 and link relationship 45. These attributes aid incategorizing, sorting or filtering the link references 42, 52 and thelink relationship 45 in the link directories 35 for delivery to otherclient devices 20. The attributes may be, for example, descriptive,temporal, spatial, or quantitative in nature, i.e., describe the linkreference in terms of who or what, when, where, or how much. One suchattribute (not shown) may be a plain language name for the linkreference 42, 52, determined and entered by the user to describe thelink reference in terms more useful to users of the system 100 than thedocument object URL address 215. Other examples of attributes mayinclude description of the content of either of the document objects 40,50 related by the link relationship 45, wherein that content may bedescribed to include a product review, news article, product informationpage, competitor's product information, or product order forms, amongother types of content.

Normally, upon completion of the endpoint capturing and attributeassignment functions, the client tool 220 connects to the server 30 tostore the link references and the new link relationship 45 in theappropriate link directory 35. Generally, the new link relationship 45is then made available to other users. Typically, other client devices20 who have access to the server 30 and are assigned access privilegeson the link directory 35 in which the new link relationship 45 has beenstored are given access to the new link relationship 45.

Furthermore, if the user of the client device 20 determines that thereis a relationship that is not already described by the transmitted linkrelationships 45 between the currently accessed document object 40 and asecond document object 50, the user may proceed to create and publish anew link relationship 45 between the first document object 40 (currentlyaccessed and displayed by the rendering tool 210) and the seconddocument object 50. This may be accomplished without displaying thesecond document object 50.

FIG. 3 a is a diagram showing the components of the Linkspace-enabledserver 30 and its interaction with other hardware and software. Theserver 30 includes a first link directory 35, a user data store 370, anda server manager 380. The server 30 may also include a second linkdirectory 310 and one or more Nth link directories 320. The servermanager 380 coordinates communications between the other components ofthe server 30. The server manager 380 also coordinates communicationswith outside objects, including the one or more client devices 20. Theserver manager 380 also performs the function of locating appropriatelink directories 35, 310, 320 for the user to participate in based upona document object presently displayed on the client device 20. The userof the client device 20 may request that the server manager 380 look inall link directories 35, 310, 320 across the system 100, regardless ofwhether the user has an affiliation with the specific link directory 35,310, 320 (which may be set in the user's Linkspace user profile data230), for the URL of the document object the user is currently accessingwith the client device 20. The user data store 370 stores identificationand user profile data regarding users authorized to access the server30, which of the several link directories 35, 310, and 320 those usersare permitted access to, and which attribute preferences the users havefor each of the link directories 35, 310, 320. In alternate embodimentsof the invention, portions of the information maintained in the userdata store 370 may be stored in the link directories 35, 310, 320.

FIG. 3 a also shows one or more alternate Linkspace-enabled servers 350that may reside on the network 10. In alternate embodiments of thesystem of the invention, the one or more alternate servers 350 may belocated off the network 10 but otherwise connected to or incommunication with the client devices 20 and/or the first server 30. Oneor more alternate link directories 360 may reside on the one or morealternate servers 350. The one or more alternate servers 350 may includeother elements duplicating the functions of the server manager 380 anduser data store 370, as well as additional link directories 310 and 320.The existence of the alternate servers 350 provides for flexibility inthe distribution of link directory data across several servers,redundancy and interoperability across multiple networks and/or sets ofclient devices 20 and users of the Linkspace system 100.

Each of the several link directories 35, 310, 320 or 360 may beassociated with and store link references 42, 52 and link relationships45. These link references 42, 52 and link relationships 45 may haveattributes matching categories defined by an authorized user designatedto manage such link directories 35, 310, 320 or 360. In this manner,each link directory 35, 310, 320 or 360 may be considered to be acommunity of interest. The authorized user designated to manage suchlink directories 35, 310, 320 or 360 may also establish attributes bywhich to organize, sort and filter the link references and linkrelationships 45. Attributes may describe the types and properties ofthe document objects 40, 50 and the link relationships 45. Anyauthorized user of the link directories 35, 310, 320 or 360 may thencreate and place link references and link relationships 45 in the linkdirectories 35, 310, 320 or 360 and assign attributes to the linkreferences and link relationships 45.

FIG. 3 a further illustrates the provision for a further linkrelationship 345 between the second document object 50 and a thirddocument object 340. The link relationship 345 may be created by anauthorized user of one of the client devices 20, just as the linkrelationship 45 between the first document object 40 and the seconddocument object 50 was created. The link relationship 345 may be storedin a second link directory 310, separated from the link relationship 45stored in the first link directory 35. As such, the link relationships45 and 345 may be considered to belong to differing communities ofinterest represented by the separate first link directory 35 and secondlink directory 310. A user of a client device 20 who is currentlyviewing or otherwise accessing the second document object 50 will onlybe presented with the link relationship 345 if the user is an authorizeduser of, and thus in the user directory 370 list for, the second linkdirectory 310. Furthermore, a user of a client device 20 who iscurrently viewing or otherwise accessing the second document object 50will only be presented with both the link relationship 45 and the linkrelationship 345 if the user is an authorized user of, and thus in theuser directory 370 lists for, both the first link directory 35 and thesecond link directory 310. A user of the Linkspace system may be or mayapply to be an authorized user for any combination of or all of the linkdirectories 35, 310, 320, and 360.

FIG. 3 b is a diagram showing more detail of one embodiment of the userdata store 370 from FIG. 3 a. The user data store 370 may include a userdirectory 372, a user profile store 375, and a user account store 378.

The user directory 372 includes one or more user data records 374,typically one or more each for every authorized user of the servers 30,350. The user data records 374 may include personal identifying data foran associated authorized user and data indicating the link directories35, 31, 320, 360 to which each user has access.

The user profile store 375 includes one or more user profile records330, typically one or more each for every authorized user of the servers30, 350. The user profile records 330 for each authorized user mayfurther include one or more user profiles 332.

Each user profile 332 may contain data regarding specific, differingconfigurations of the user's personal, professional, geographic andother interests, and the servers 30, link directories 35, 310, 320, 360,and attributes associated with those interests, as entered by the useror collected by the client tool 220. The data in the user profile 332may be used to determine what link directories 35, 310, 320, 360 thatthe user may have engaged. The data in the user profile 332 may furtherdetermine what attributes of link references 42, 52, and of linkrelationships 45, will be considered by the server 30 in returning thelink references 42, 52 and the link relationships 45 from the linkdirectories 35, 310, 320, 360 to the user's client device 20.

The user account store 378 includes one or more user account records379, usually one each for every authorized user of the servers 30, 350.The user account records 379 hold information regarding usage of theLinkspace system 100 by each authorized user. The information in theuser account records 379 may include data on instances of thepublication of link relationships 45, and the transmissions of linkrelationships 45 and link references 42, 52 based upon the documentobject displayed by the client tool 220 of each user. In alternateembodiments of the invention, data regarding the document objects 40,50, 340 requested and accessed by users of the system 100 is notrecorded in the user account records 379 against the individualauthorized user in order to maintain user privacy with regard to whatdocument objects 40, 50, 340 each individual user may request or access.

When an authorized user of a client device 20 creates a linkrelationship 45 that is stored in one or more of the link directories35, 310, 320, 360, the server manager 380 records in the user accountrecord 379 (associated with the authorized user creating the linkrelationship 45) the activity of creating and storing a linkrelationship 45. Each of the authorized users of the link directories35, 310, 320, 360 may be allowed to create link relationships 45 to bestored in one or more of the link directories 35, 310, 320 or 360, towhich that authorized user is permitted publication access. Each of theauthorized users of each specific link directory 35, 310, 320, 360 mayalso be allowed access for display those link relationships 45 stored inthe specific link directory 35, 310, 320,360 that relate to the firstdocument object 40 or second document object 50 that the user iscurrently viewing on the user's client device 20.

The interaction of each of the elements of the server 30, alternateserver 350, the client devices 20, and the first, second and thirddocument objects 40, 50, and 340, along with the creation andpresentation of the link relationships 45 and 345 may be illustrated bythe application of the methods 600, 700, and 800 described below withreference to FIGS. 6, 7, and 8.

FIG. 4 a shows the general structure of one embodiment of the linkdirectory 35. This embodiment of the link directory 35 includes a linkrelationship table 420.

The link relationship table 420 comprises a list of link relationships460, 470, 480, 490. These link relationships 460, 470, 480, 490correspond to the link relationships 45, 345 created by users of theclient device 20 as they are stored in the link directory 35. The linkrelationship 460 comprises a field 462 containing a link reference 42(L1) including the URL address of the first document object 40 relatedby the link relationship 460; a field 463 containing a link reference 52(L2) including the URL address of the second document object 50 relatedby the link relationship 460; a set of link relationship attributes 465;and a directional indicator 466 showing the nature of the linkrelationship between the two document objects, either unidirectional orbi-directional. The link relationship 460 is shown with the directionalindicator 466 specifying that the link relationship 460 is aunidirectional link relationship.

Some or all of the list of link relationships 460, 470, 480, 490comprising the link relationship table 420 may, in one embodiment of theinvention, be stored on the server 30 in the form of relational databaserecords. The relational database record corresponding to the linkrelationship 460 may be comprised of one or more relational databasefields corresponding to the field (L1) 462, field (L2) 463, linkrelationship attributes 465, and directional indicator 466. Each of theone or more relational database fields may be formatted and designatedto store various forms of relational database data types. In oneembodiment of the invention, the relational database field correspondingto the field 462, as well as the relational database field correspondingto the field 463, may contain data specifying the appropriate URL astext or other format appropriate for the network upon which theinvention may be implemented. In one embodiment of the invention, therelational database field corresponding to the directional indicator 466may be formatted as a simple flag (i.e., Boolean) data type such asTrue/False, Yes/No, or On/Off. Alternatively, the relational databasefield corresponding to the directional indicator 466 may be formatted asa type to allow entry of a value indicating whether the linkrelationship attribute 465 applies forward, backward or in bothdirections across the link relationship 460. In one embodiment of theinvention, the link relationship attributes 465 may be represented byone or more relational database fields. In this embodiment, therelational database fields comprising the link relationship attributes465 may include a field of text data listing the assigned titles of theone or more specific link relationship attributes assigned to the linkrelationship 460. The relational database fields comprising the linkrelationship attributes 465 may then also include one or more attributevalue fields containing data formatted appropriately for thecorresponding link relationship attribute listed in the above describedfield of text data. For example, the plain language name linkrelationship attribute may have its corresponding value stored in afield formatted as text, whereas a zip code attribute may have itscorresponding value stored in a field formatted as a 5 or 9 digitinteger, and a date attribute may have its corresponding value stored ina field formatted in a date format. In an alternative embodiment, therelational database fields comprising the link relationship attributes465 may utilize relational database key fields which point to additionaldatabase tables containing the records specifying each available type oflink relationship attribute for the link relationship 460 and key fieldswhich point to additional tables containing the values associated witheach of link relationship attribute identified by a key.

As with the link relationship 460, the link relationship 470 comprises afield 472 containing a link reference 42 (L1) including the URL addressof the first document object 40 related by the link relationship 470; afield 473 containing a third link reference (L3) including the URLaddress of the third document object 340 related by the linkrelationship 470; a set of link relationship attributes 475; and adirectional indicator 476 showing the nature of the link relationshipbetween the two document objects, either unidirectional orbi-directional. The link relationship 470 is shown with the directionalindicator 476 specifying that the link relationship 470 is abi-directional link relationship. The link relationship 480 comprises afield 482 containing a link reference 52 (L2) including the URL addressof the second document object 50 related by the link relationship 480; afield 483 containing the third link reference (L3) including the URLaddress of the third document object 340 related by the linkrelationship 480; a set of link relationship attributes 485; and adirectional indicator 486 showing the nature of the link relationshipbetween the two document objects, either unidirectional orbi-directional. The link relationship 480 is shown with the directionalindicator 486 specifying that the link relationship 480 is abi-directional link relationship.

The link relationship 490 comprises a field 492 containing a linkreference 52 (L2) including the URL address of the second documentobject 50 related by the link relationship 490; a field 493 containing alink reference 42 (L1) including the URL address of the first documentobject 40 related by the link relationship 490; a set of linkrelationship attributes 495; and a directional indicator 496 showing thenature of the link relationship between the two document objects, eitherunidirectional or bi-directional. The link relationship 490 is shownwith the directional indicator 496 specifying that the link relationship490 is a unidirectional link relationship.

The link relationship attributes 465, 475, 485, 495 may include a plainlanguage name (not shown) associated with each of the link references42, 52 participating in the respective link relationship 460, 470, 480,490, as determined and entered by the user of the client tool 220. Theplain language name serves to describe the link reference 42, 52 interms better understood by the users of the system 100 than the URLassociated with the link reference 42, 52. The link relationshipattributes 465, 475, 485,495 serve to describe the link references 42,52 in terms useful to users of the system 100, and to place the linkreferences 42, 52 in a context that may attract users to select the linkreferences 42, 52. Other examples of link relationship attributes 465,475, 485, 495 may include descriptions of the content of either of thedocument objects 40, 50 related by the link relationship 460, 470, 480,490, wherein that content may be described to include a product review,news article, product information page, competitor's productinformation, or product order forms, among other types of content.

The link relationship 470 may have a value assigned to the directionalindicator 476 specifying that the link relationship 470 is abi-directional link relationship. This indicates that the linkrelationship attributes 475 apply to either of the two document objects(40 and 340) equally in the context of the link relationship 470.

The link relationship 460 may, on the other hand, have a value assignedto the direction indicator 466 specifying that the link relationship 460is a unidirectional link relationship. This signifies that the linkrelationship attributes 465 apply in only one direction between the twodocument objects 40 and 50 represented in the fields 462 and 463 throughthe link references 42 and 52 respectively. In this instance, a linkrelationship will not be transmitted and presented to the user of theclient device 20 when requested in the direction opposite to thatspecified by the direction indicator 466. In the case of the linkrelationship 460 shown in FIG. 4 a, the attributes 465 apply only as thelink relationship 460 is traversed from the first link reference 42 tothe second link reference 52, and not in the reverse direction. In asimilar manner, the link relationship 490 may have a value assigned tothe direction indicator 496 specifying that the link relationship 490 isa unidirectional link relationship. This signifies that the linkrelationship attributes 495 apply in only one direction between the twodocument objects 50 and 40 represented in the fields 492 and 493 throughthe link references 52 and 42 respectively. In the case of the linkrelationship 490 shown in FIG. 4 a, the attributes 495 apply only as thelink relationship 490 is traversed from the second link reference 52 tothe first link reference 42, and not in the reverse direction. In thisinstance, a link relationship will not be transmitted and presented tothe user of the client device 20 when requested in the directionopposite to that specified by the direction indicator 496.

In an alternate embodiment, the direction indicator 466 of the linkrelationship 460 may comprise a plurality of directional indicatorfields (not shown). Each directional indicator field may then correspondto one of the one or more link relationship attributes 465 and indicatewhether the corresponding link relationship attribute 465 may apply inone direction or in both directions between the two document objects 40and 50 represented in the fields 462 and 463 through the link references42 and 52 respectively. Likewise, the direction indicator 496 of thelink relationship 490 may comprise a plurality of directional indicatorfields (not shown). Each directional indicator field may then correspondto one of the one or more link relationship attributes 495 and indicatewhether the corresponding link relationship attribute 495 may apply inone direction or in both directions between the two document objects 50and 40 represented in the fields 492 and 493 through the link references52 and 42 respectively. In the alternate embodiment, a similararrangement may then be implemented for the remaining directionindicators 476, 486 of the link relationships 470, 480.

FIG. 4 b shows the general structure of another embodiment of the linkdirectory 35. This embodiment of the link directory 35 includes adocument object table 410, and a link relationship table 420, asdescribed above for FIG. 4 a.

The document object table 410 comprises a set of link references 430,440, 450 to document objects located on the network 10 to which the linkdirectory 35 is connected. Each link reference 430, 440, 450 furthercomprises the URL 432, 442, or 452 of the respective document object 40,50, 340 of interest; a set of document object attributes 435, 445, 455associated with the URL 432, 442, 452; and a list 437, 447, 457 ofpointers to any of the link relationships 460, 470, 480, 490 by whichthe link references 430, 440, 450 may be connected to each other withcontext. In the case of a link relationship 460, 490 having thedirection indicator 466, 496 set to indicate that the link relationship460, 490 is unidirectional, the link relationship 460, 490 will belisted only in the list 437, 447, 457 of pointers for the link reference430, 440, 450 that begins the unidirectional link relationship 460, 490.The link references 430, 440, and 450 in FIG. 4 b correspond to the linkreferences 42, 52, and the third link reference (not shown), asdescribed in FIGS. 1-4 a above, and which point to the URL addresses ofthe document objects 40, 50, and 340 respectively.

The document object attributes 435, 445, 455 serve to describe the linkreferences 430, 440, 450 in terms useful to users of the system 100, andto place the link references 430, 440, 450 in a context that may attractusers to select the link references 430, 440, 450. The document objectattributes 435, 445, 455 may include a plain language name that servesto describe the document object 40, 50, 340 in terms better understoodby the users of the system 100 than the URLs associated with the linkreferences 430, 440, 450; descriptions of the content of the documentobject 40, 50, 340 associated with link references 430, 440, 450,wherein that content may be described to include a product review, newsarticle, product information page, competitor's product information, orproduct order forms, among other types of content; and other descriptivecharacteristics associated with the document object 40, 50, 340.

The link references 430, 440, and 450 may be created and placed in thedocument object table 410 when a user of the client device 20 creates alink relationship 45 between a first document object 40 and a seconddocument object 50 or a third document object 340.

The link relationship table 420 shown in FIG. 4 b comprises the samelist of link relationships 460, 470, 480, 490, detailed above in FIG. 4a. In FIG. 4 b, the link relationship 460 comprises a field 462containing a pointer to the link reference 430 for the first documentobject 40 related by the link relationship 460; a field 463 containing apointer to the link reference 440 for the second document object 50related by the link relationship 460; the link relationship attributes465; and the directional indicator 466. In FIG. 4 b, the linkrelationship 470 comprises a field 472 containing a pointer to the linkreference 430 for the first document object 40 related by the linkrelationship 470; a field 473 containing a pointer to the link reference450 for the third document object 340 related by the link relationship470; the link relationship attributes 475; and the directional indicator476. In FIG. 4 b, link relationship 480 comprises a field 482 containinga pointer to the link reference 440 for the second document object 50related by the link relationship 480; a field 483 containing a pointerto the link reference 450 for the third document object 340 related bythe link relationship 480; the link relationship attributes 485; and thedirectional indicator 486. Likewise, in FIG. 4 b, the link relationship490 comprises a field 492 containing a pointer to the link reference 440for the second document object 50 related by the link relationship 490;a field 493 containing a pointer to the link reference 430 for the firstdocument object 40 related by the link relationship 490; the linkrelationship attributes 495; and the directional indicator 496.

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of the present invention in which theinvention may operate on multiple networks of varying degrees of networksecurity. The different networks on which the systems and methods of thepresent invention may be implemented include a public network such asthe Internet 510, a private network 520 that may be connected to theInternet 510, and a closed network 530 that is secure and not accessibleto users not connected to the closed network 530. The closed network 530is not connected to any public network such as the Internet 510, and isnot connected to another private network 520.

The public network or Internet 510 may have components connected to itthat implement the present invention, including one or moreLinkspace-enabled client users 511, one or more link directories 512,one or more Linkspace-hosted content units 513, and one or morenetworked content units 514. The link directories 512 described here arefunctionally equivalent to the link directories 35, 310, 320, and 360described above in connection with FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 a. TheLinkspace-hosted content units 513 comprise information storage devicesconnected to the network 510 that provide additional document objectstorage facilities to users of the Linkspace system 100 separate fromthe publicly or privately operated networked content units 514. Thenetworked content units 514 may include networked data servers or webservers.

The Linkspace-hosted content units 513 are provided to accommodate thestreamlined publication and/or distribution of content by users of theLinkspace system 100. The client tool 220 may allow a user of theLinkspace system 100 to store document objects of his or her owncreation through a simplified procedure, i.e., a publish documentfunction enabled through the client GUI display 225. The user of theclient device 20 may select a document object 40 that she wishes topublish through the Linkspace-hosted content units 513, or she maycreate a document object (not shown) using the rendering tool 210 orother document object creation tool. The user of the client device 20then selects the publish document function through the client GUIdisplay 225 and selects the link directories 35, 310, 320, 360 in whichshe wishes to create and publish new link relationships 45, 345referencing the user created or selected document object. The user ofthe client device 20 may then create and publish link relationships 45,345 referencing the user created or selected document object. The clienttool 220 may automatically upload the user created or selected documentobject from the user's client device 20, or from another location on thenetwork, in this case the Internet 510, and save it on theLinkspace-hosted content unit 513. The client tool 220 may then publishthe new link relationships 45, 345 referencing the user created orselected document object to the appropriate link directory 35, 310, 320,360, and then make the user created or selected document objectavailable to other users of the Linkspace system 100 through the newlink relationships 45, 345. The activity of publishing a user created orselected document object in this manner is also recorded in theappropriate user account record 379 for the user creating or selectingthe document object to be published.

Similarly, the private network 520 may have connected to it componentsthat implement the present invention, including one or moreLinkspace-enabled client users 521, one or more link directories 522,one or more Linkspace-hosted content units 523, and one or morenetworked content units 524.

Additionally, the closed network 530 may have connected to it componentsthat implement the present invention, including one or moreLinkspace-enabled client users 531, one or more link directories 532,one or more Linkspace-hosted content units 533, and one or morenetworked content units 534.

In FIG. 5, the private network 520 is shown connected to the publicnetwork or Internet 510. This may allow Linkspace-enabled client users521 connected to the private network 520 to also be permitted access toany of the one or more link directories 512, Linkspace-hosted contentunits 513, and networked content units 514 that are connected to thepublic network or Internet 510. However, Linkspace-enabled client users511 connected to the public network or Internet 510 that are not alsoamong the group of authorized Linkspace-enabled client users 521 of theprivate network 520, may not be permitted to access the one or more linkdirectories 522, Linkspace-hosted content units 523, and networkedcontent units 524 that are connected to the private network 520.

A Linkspace client user 531 connected to the closed network 530, andtherefore not connected to either the public network or Internet 510 norto the private network 520, may only be permitted access to the one ormore link directories 532, Linkspace-hosted content units 533, andnetworked content units 534 that are connected to the closed network530.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the steps of a method 600 according to oneembodiment of the present invention. The method 600 includes the stepsof a first user (not shown) of a client device 20 locating a firstdocument object 40 (step 610); the first user locating a second documentobject 50 (step 620); and the first user creating a link relationship 45between the first document object 40 and the second document object 50(step 630). The method 600 includes the additional steps of storing thelink relationship 45 created by the first user in a link directory 35(step 640); and providing access to the link directory 35 to a seconduser (not shown) of another client device 20 (step 650).

The method 600 may include a step for providing authorized users ofclient devices 20 access to the link relationships 45 stored in linkdirectories 35, based upon the document object 40 currently accessed bythe users on the users' client device 20 (step 660).

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the steps of a method 700 for accessingand displaying link relationships and related document objects on anetwork according to one embodiment of the present invention. The method700 initiates when a user of a client device 20 engages the renderingtool 210 to request, access and display a document object 40 (step 710).The user of the client device 20 then engages the client tool 220 and isauthenticated by a server 30 (step 715). The user of the client device20 then selects a user profile 332 (step 717) that has been returned tothe client device 20 upon authentication of the user by the server 30 instep 715. The selected user profile 332 may be used to determine whatattributes of the link relationships 45 will be applied to filter andsort the link references 430, 440, 450 and link relationships 460, 470,480 returned by the server 30. By filtering and sorting usingattributes, a manageable and meaningful group of relevant linkreferences 430, 440, 450 may be displayed to the user based on theuser's needs and interests.

In alternate embodiments of the method 700, the steps 715 and 717 mayoccur before the step 710.

With the user profile 332 selected and the document object 40 displayed,the user then selects a client tool 220 function (step 720). The firstfunction that the user may select is to enter a document object URL 215into the rendering tool 210, whereupon that document object URL 215 iscaptured by the client tool 220 and transmitted to the servers 30 (step730). The activity of transmitting the document object URL 215 to theservers 30 by the client tool 220 may be recorded and stored in anappropriate location within the user data store 370.

The server 30 then processes the transmitted document object URL 215across the various link directories 35 to which the user is authorizedaccess. One method of processing by the server 30 is according to thefollowing steps. The server 30 performs a search of the document objecttables 410 of all link directories 35 to find all instances of thedocument object URL 215 (step 735). The server 30 then searches the Linkrelationship tables 420 in the link directories 35 where the URL 215 wasfound. This search by the server 30 locates all link relationships 460,470, 480, 490 referencing the URL 215 as one of the pointers to linkreferences 462 or 463, 472 or 473, 482 or 483, 492 or 493 included inthose link relationship 460, 470, 480, 490 (step 740). The server 30then accumulates all the URLs 432, 442, 452 related, through the linkrelationships 460, 470, 480, 490 identified in step 740, to the URL 215.The server 30 also accumulates the document object attributes 435, 445,455 associated with the identified URLs 432, 442, 452 and the linkrelationship attributes 465, 475, 485, 495 associated with the linkrelationships 460, 470, 480, 490 identified in step 740 (step 745).

The accumulated URLs 432, 442, 452 are then filtered by linkrelationship attributes 465, 475, 485, 495 (step 750), and then filteredagain by document object attributes 435, 445, 455 (step 755). Inalternate embodiments of the method 700, the accumulated URLs 432, 442,452 may be filtered first by document object attributes 435, 445, 455(step 755) and then by link relationship attributes 465, 475, 485, 495(step 750). The user profile 332 is applied to determine what linkrelationship attributes 465, 475, 485, 495, and document objectattributes 435, 445, 455 to use in filtering the accumulated URLs 432,442, 452. The filtered URLs 432, 442, 452 are then sent back to theclient device 20 that transmitted the URL 215, along with the associateddocument object attributes 435, 445, 455, and associated linkrelationship attributes 465, 475, 485, 495 (step 760). The activity oftransmitting the filtered URLs 432, 442, 452, along with the associateddocument object attributes 435, 445, 455, and associated linkrelationship attributes 465, 475, 485, 495, to the client device 20 maybe recorded and stored in an appropriate location within the user datastore 370. Alternatively, the first filtering steps 750, 755 may beperformed by the client device 20.

The client tool 220, upon receiving the filtered URLs 432, 442, 452 fromthe server 30, may further filter and sort the returned URLs 432, 442,452 according to data stored in the selected user profile 332 (step765). In this manner, the data in the user profile 332 may be applied tothe filtered and sorted URLs 432, 442, 452 on either the server 30 orthe client tool 20.

The filtered and sorted URLs 432, 442, 452 are then displayed to theuser of the client device 20 by the client GUI display 225 and theclient tool 220 alerts the user of the client device 20 to theavailability of related links (in the form of the returned URLs 432,442, 452) by means of an indicator in the client GUI display 225 (step770). The method 700 then returns to step 720 to await further action bythe user of the client device 20.

If, at step 720, the user of the client device 20 selects one of the URLlinks 432, 442, 452 displayed by the Linkspace GUI display as beingrelated by link relationships 460, 470, 480, 490 to the presentlyaccessed document object 40 with the URL 215 (step 780), the renderingtool 210 then accesses the new document object 50 associated with theselected URL and displays that document object 50 in the GUI display 218of the rendering tool 210 (step 785). The new document object URLaddress 215 of the selected document object 50 is then passed on to theservers 30 (step 790) and the method 700 continues with step 735, asabove, using the URL 215 of the new document object 50 as the URL tosearch for.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the steps of a method 800 for creating andpublishing link relationships according to one embodiment of the presentinvention. The method 800 initiates when a user of the client device 20engages the client tool 220 and is authenticated by a server 30 (step810). The user of the client device 20 may then select a publish linkrelationship function of the client tool 220 (step 815).

The user of the client device 20 may then navigate, using the renderingtool 210, to the first document object 40 of the new link relationship45 that the user of the client device 20 wishes to create and publish.The user may then select a declare first link function of the clienttool 220 (step 820). The user of the client device 20 may then navigate,again using the rendering tool 210, to the second document object 50that the user of the client device 20 wishes to associate by means of alink relationship 45 with the first document object 40. The user canthen select the declare second link function of the client tool 220(step 825). The user of the client device 20 has now selected both endsof a link relationship 45.

The user now may select which of the link directories 35 in which theuser wishes to publish the new link relationship 45 (step 830). The userof the client device 20 may then further assign link relationshipattributes, such as those shown in FIG. 4 (465, 475, 485, 495) to thelink relationship 45, along with assigning any document objectattributes, such as those shown in FIG. 4 (435, 445, 455), to the firstdocument object 40 and second document object 50 of the linkrelationship 45 (step 835). The user may then interact with a LinkspaceGUI 225 button or element to complete the link relationship publishfunction (step 840). Upon completion of the link relationship publishfunction on the client device, the URLs and document object attributesof the document objects 40 and 50 associated by the new linkrelationship 45 are stored in the document object table 410 in theselected link directory 35 (step 850). Additionally, the new linkrelationship 45, along with the URL references to the first documentobject 40 and second document object 50 and the link relationshipattributes, such as those shown in FIG. 4 (465, 475, 485, 495), arestored in the link relationship table 420 in the selected link directory35 (step 855). The method 800 for creating and publishing linkrelationships completes by recording the publishing activity to the useraccount record 379 associated with the user of the client device 20 forlater tracking and billing purposes (step 880).

FIG. 9 is an example of a user interface, more specifically, a screenview of a user interface for a relate links dialog box 900, one elementof the user interface of one embodiment of the invention. The relatelinks dialog box 900 is invoked when a user of the client tool 220engages the publish link relationship function of the client tool 220.In the embodiment shown in FIG. 9, the relate links dialog box 900includes a drop down list 910 for selecting a community of interest, auser interface term referring to one of the one or more link directories35, and a checkbox 915 for indicating whether the link relationship 45being created is to operate bi-directionally or unidirectionally. If thecheckbox 915 is checked, then the link relationship 45 being createdwill only apply in one direction. In the example illustrated in FIG. 9,the user has selected the community of interest (link directory 35)referred to as “Wireless Washington,” a link directory 35 storing linkreferences 42, 52 and link relationships 45 considered by their creatorsas relevant to wireless device users in the Washington, D.C.metropolitan area.

The relate links dialog box 900 further includes a link-from section920, a link-to section 930, a link relationship attributes display box970, a submit link relationship button 980 and a cancel button 985. Thesubmit link relationship button 980 is selected by the user when theuser has selected and/or entered all information associated with thelink references 42, 52 and the link relationship 45 that the user wishesto publish. Upon selection of the submit link relationship button 980,the client tool 220 closes the relate links dialog box 900 and transmitsthe information associated with the created link relationship 45 to oneof the one or more servers 30. The cancel button 985 may be selected bythe user to abort the creation and publication of the link relationship45 that the user initiated and to close the relate links dialog box 900.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 9, the link-from section 920 may includea first document object URL 922 associated with the first documentobject 40 included in the link relationship 45 being created, where thefirst document object URL 922 was captured when the publish linkrelationship function was engaged; a first plain language name field925; and a listing of first link reference attributes 940 and theattribute values 942 associated with those first link referenceattributes 940. In the example illustrated by FIG. 9, the first documentobject URL 922 is the address of a first document object 40 that is aweb page for a coffee and dessert shop. The first plain language namefield 925 may be captured when the publish link relationship functionwas engaged and/or may be edited by the user creating the linkrelationship 45. An exemplary first link reference attribute for food945, and the value of specialty foods 947 assigned to the first linkreference attribute 945 by the user creating the link relationship 45,are also shown.

The link-to section 930 similarly may include a second document objectURL 932 associated with the second document object 50 included in thelink relationship 45 being created, where the second document object URL932 was captured when the publish link relationship function wasengaged; a second plain language name field 935; and a listing of secondlink reference attributes 950 and the attribute values 952 associatedwith those second link reference attributes 950. In the exampleillustrated by FIG. 9, the second document object URL 932 is the addressof a second document object 40 that is a web page for a “LinkSpaceRestaurant” located in McLean, Va. (a suburb of Washington). The secondplain language name field 935 may be captured when the publish linkrelationship function was engaged and/or may be edited by the usercreating the link relationship 45. An exemplary second link referenceattribute for location 955, and the value of address 995 assigned to thesecond link reference attribute 955 by the user creating the linkrelationship 45, are also shown. In addition, in the example illustratedby FIG. 9, a subordinate attribute for city 957, subordinate under theattribute for location 955, and a value of address 995 along with theassigned value of McLean 958 for the subordinate attribute for city 957,are also shown in the link-to section 930. Further subordinateattributes may include a street 956 with a value 959 of 12345 MainStreet.

The link relationship attributes display box 970, as shown for theembodiment illustrated by FIG. 9, includes a list of link relationshipattributes 972 and a delete link relationship attribute button 975. Thelink relationships 972 are formed by pairs of first link referenceattributes 940 and second link reference attributes 950 that the usercreating the link relationship 45 has selected to describe the nature ofthe link relationship 45. These link relationship attributes 972 mayform the link relationship attributes 465, 475, 485, 495 described inFIG. 4 a. The delete link relationship attribute button 975 may be usedto delete a selected link relationship attribute 972 displayed in thelink relationship attributes display box 970.

The exemplary link relationship attribute 972 shown in FIG. 9 indicatesthat the user creating the link relationship 45 has declared that thecity subordinate attribute 957 (one selected second link referenceattribute 950) of Linkspace Restaurant associated with the seconddocument object 50, having a value of McLean 958, is related to the foodattribute 945 (one selected first link reference attribute 940), havinga value of specialty foods 947, of the coffee shop associated with thefirst document object 40. As a result, once the exemplary linkrelationship 45 shown in FIG. 9 is created and published, other users ofLinkspace-enabled client devices 20 that request and/or access theLinkspace Restaurant web page may be presented with a link reference 42,52 pointing to the web page for the coffee and dessert shop, asillustrated in the link reference display window 1020 shown in FIG. 10.

In one embodiment of the invention, the link relationship attribute 972may be declared by the user performing a drag-and-drop operation whereinthe link reference 34 attribute 957 is dragged and dropped onto the linkreference attribute 945, creating the link relationship attribute 972which relates the two document objects 40, 50 by the association of thecity subordinate attribute 957 to the food attribute 945. In analternate embodiment, the creation and selection of link relationshipattributes 972 may be performed in a manner similar to that used in thelink-to section 930 and link-from section 920 described above, utilizinga set of link relationship attribute types along with data input fieldsfor entering or otherwise selecting values for those attributes.

FIG. 10 is an example of a screen view for one embodiment of the clientGUI display 225 for one embodiment of the invention, wherein the clientGUI display 225 is integrated into the GUI display 218 of the renderingtool 210. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 10, a client toolbar 1010 anda link reference display window 1020 together comprise the client GUIdisplay 225. A browser window 1030 displays the document object (40, 50)being requested and accessed by the rendering tool 210 and having thedocument object URL address 215 displayed in an address bar field 1040.

The client toolbar 1010 includes a number of GUI buttons that initiatevarious functions of the client tool 220. A client logon button 1050initiates a connection between the client tool 220 and one or moreservers 30. A client logoff button 1055 ends a user session for theclient tool 220 and disconnects the client tool 220 from the one or moreservers 30. A mark starting page button 1060 may be engaged to initiatethe publish link relationship function of the client tool 220 by settingthe currently displayed document object 40 shown in the browser window1030 and referenced by the document object URL address 215 displayed inthe address bar field 1040 as the first document object 40 in the linkrelationship 45. After the user navigates to a second document object50, a mark ending page button 1065 may be engaged to complete theselection of participating document objects 40, 50 for the publish linkrelationship function of the client tool 220. Engaging the mark endingpage button 1065 sets the newly displayed document object 50 shown inthe browser window 1030 and referenced by the document object URLaddress 215 displayed in the address bar field 1040 as the seconddocument object 50 in the link relationship 45, and opens a relate linksdialogue box 900 (shown and described in FIG. 9 above) to allow the userof the client tool 220 to assign attributes to the link relationship 45.

The client toolbar 1010 also may include three icons that indicate theavailability and type of link references 42, 52 related to the documentobject 40 open in the browser window 1030. These icons may include apublisher links indicator 1071, a private links indicator 1072, and acommunity links indicator 1073.

The link reference display window 1020 presents the user with ahierarchical listing of any link references 42, 52, delivered by theserver 30, that may be related to the document object 40 that iscurrently displayed in the browser window 1030 and has the documentobject URL address 215 shown in the address bar field 1040. The linkreference display window 1020 may be presented in a tabbed format,wherein each tab may contain a different set of link references 42, 52depending on the type of link reference and link relationship involved.In one embodiment of the invention, there may be three different tabs atthe top of the link reference display window 1020, each corresponding toone of the indicator icons (1071, 1072, 1073) in the client toolbar1010. The first tab may be a private links tab 1074, corresponding tothe private links indicator 1072. The second tab may be a publisherlinks tab 1075, corresponding to the publisher links indicator 1071. Thethird tab may be a community links tab 1076, corresponding to thecommunity links indicator 1073.

The document object 40 displayed in the browser window 1030 in FIG. 10is a representative web page, in this case for a restaurant namedLinkspace. When this page is displayed, and the client tool 220 isengaged, as indicated by the recessed display of the client logon button1050 in the client toolbar 1010, one or more of the indicator icons(1071, 1072, 1073) in the client toolbar 1010 will become highlighted ifthere are any link references 42, 52 available of the correspondingtype.

For example, as illustrated in FIG. 10, the community links indicator1073 is highlighted, while the publisher links indicator 1071 and theprivate links indicator 1072 are grayed out. This indicates that theserver 30 has returned one or more link references 42, 52 that arecategorized as community links and has not returned any link references42, 52 categorized as publisher or private links. The returned linkreferences 42, 52 are displayed in the link reference display window1020 under the community links tab 1076. In this case, the linkreferences 42, 52 are displayed in a hierarchical listing under affinitydirectory headings 1081, 1082. The affinity directory heading 1082 shownrepresents one community of interest, corresponding to one linkdirectory 35 on a server 30, maintaining one set of link relationships45 and link references 42, 52, that may include the document object 40displayed in the browser window 1030. In addition, under each affinitydirectory heading 1081, 1082, there may be displayed one or moreattribute folders 1091, 1092. Each attribute folder 1091, 1092 maycontain a grouping of listed hyperlinks 1095, 1096 drawn from therespective affinity directory heading 1082 and related to the documentobject 40 displayed in the browser window 1030 by a particular linkrelationship attribute 972.

In the example shown in FIG. 10, affinity directory heading 1082indicates a link directory 35 focusing on wireless devices in theWashington, D.C. area. Also shown in the example in FIG. 10, theattribute folder 1091 groups listed hyperlinks 1095 by the linkrelationship attribute 972, further relating document objects 40 tospecialty food document objects 50. The listed hyperlink 1095, listedunder the attribute folder 1091, comprises the text of the plainlanguage name attribute of a document object concerning coffee anddessert after dinner. In this manner, the listed hyperlink 1095,displayed under the affinity directory heading 1082 and the attributefolder 1091, represents a link reference 52 to a document object 50 thatis related, as a document object of interest to wireless device users inthe Washington area, and as a specialty food document object, to thedocument object 40, the restaurant web page, displayed in the browserwindow 1030.

The attribute folder 1092 shown in the example in FIG. 10 groups listedhyperlinks 1096 by the link relationship attribute 972 further relatingdocuments objects 40 to document objects 50 concerning the downtown areaof the Washington, D.C. suburb of McLean. The listed hyperlink 1096 isto a LinkNexus document object for the city of McLean. A LinkNexusdocument object may comprise a listing of further link references 42, 52to document objects 40, 50 relating to a particular subject. In the caseillustrated in FIG. 10, the LinkNexus document object indicated by thelisted hyperlink 1096 may contain link references 42, 52 concerning thesuburban city of McLean. In this manner, the listed hyperlink 1096,displayed under the affinity directory heading 1082 and the attributefolder 1092, represents a link reference 52 to a document object 50 thatis related, as a document object of interest to wireless device users inthe Washington area, and as a link to content relevant to downtownMcLean, to the document object 40, the restaurant web page, displayed inthe browser window 1030.

The affinity directory heading 1081 shown in the example in FIG. 10indicates a community related to “Your Company,” the user's company.This affinity directory heading 1081 may contain link references 42, 52to document objects 40, 50 maintained on the user's company's privatenetwork 520, accessible to users within the company, but not to thegeneral public, as shown and described in FIG. 5.

The steps of the methods 600, 700 and 800, and subsets of those steps orparts of the methods, may be implemented with hardware or by executionof programs, modules or scripts. The programs, modules or scripts may bestored or embodied on one or more computer readable mediums in a varietyof formats, including source code, object code or executable code, amongother formats. The computer readable mediums may include, for example,both storage devices and signals. Exemplary computer readable storagedevices include conventional computer system RAM (random access memory),ROM (read only memory), EPROM (erasable, programmable ROM), EEPROM(electrically erasable, programmable ROM), and magnetic or optical disksor tapes. Exemplary computer readable signals, whether modulated using acarrier or not, are signals that a computer system hosting or runningthe described methods can be configured to access, including signalsdownloaded through the Internet or other networks.

The terms and descriptions used herein are set forth by way ofillustration only and are not meant as limitations. Those skilled in theart will recognize that many variations are possible within the spiritand scope of the invention as defined in the following claims, and theirequivalents, in which all terms are to be understood in their broadestpossible sense unless otherwise indicated.

1. A method for enabling users of a network to create, store, andprovide access to relationships among document objects stored on thenetwork, the method comprising the steps of: allowing creation of a linkrelationship between a first document object and a second documentobject, wherein the link relationship includes fields referencing afirst and second document object and the allowing includes: locating thefirst document object; locating the second document object related tothe first document object; and creating a link relationship whichreferences the first document object and the second document object;storing the link relationship in one or more link directories, whereinthe storing comprises: storing a link relationship entry in a linkrelationship table, wherein the link relationship entry comprises fieldsincluding a first link reference to the first document object and asecond link reference to the second document object; and assigning linkrelationship attributes to the link relationship entry; accessing one ormore link relationships stored in the one or more link directories usinga unique identifier for the first document object, wherein the one ormore link directories are separate from the first document object; andproviding a link reference to a third document object, wherein the linkreference provided is determined by identifying those one or more linkrelationships stored in the one or more link directories that includethe unique identifier of the first document object, wherein providing alink reference includes displaying the link reference to a user.
 2. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the accessing step comprises providing accessonly to authorized users.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprisingauthorizing users of the network to perform the allowing, storing andaccessing steps.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of thesteps of the method are accomplished by automated procedures notrequiring interaction with the user.
 5. The method of claim 1, whereinthe storing step further comprises: setting a directional indicator forthe link relationship entry.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the stepof storing the link relationship in one or more link directories furthercomprises: storing the first link reference to the first document objectin a document object table; assigning document object attributes to thefirst link reference associated with the first document object; storingthe second link reference to the second document object in the documentobject table; and assigning document object attributes to the secondlink reference associated with the second document object.
 7. The methodof claim 6, wherein one or more of the link relationship attributes areset; and a directional indicator for the link relationship attribute isset by associating one document object attribute for the first linkreference with one document object attribute for the second linkreference.
 8. The method of claim 1 wherein the displayed link referenceis related to a document object the user is currently accessing, whereinthe link reference displayed to the user is determined by identifyingthose link relationships stored in the one or more link directories thatinclude a link reference to a network address of the currently accesseddocument object.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the displaying stepcomprises displaying more than one link reference from one or more linkdirectories.
 10. The method of claim 8, wherein the displaying stepcomprises sorting and presenting one or more link references by the oneor more link directories storing the link references.
 11. The method ofclaim 10, wherein the displaying step comprises sorting and presentingthe one or more link references by attributes of the link relationshipsand link references.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein the method isused on one or more of: a private network, a closed network, a publicnetwork, and a private network that is connected to a public network.13. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more link directories areaccessible only by a specific individual user of a client device. 14.The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more link directories arestored on a server connected to the network by means of a secureconnection.
 15. The method of claim 1 further comprising assigningattributes to the link relationship established between the firstdocument object and the second document object.
 16. The method of claim15 further comprising assigning attributes to a first link reference tothe first document object and a second link reference to the seconddocument object.
 17. The method of claim 16 wherein the link referencesstored in the one or more link directories is capable of beingorganized, sorted, searched and filtered by one or more attributesassigned to the link references.
 18. The method of claim 15 wherein thelink relationship stored in the one or more link directories is capableof being organized, sorted, searched and filtered by one or moreattributes assigned to the link relationship.
 19. The method of claim 1,further comprising displaying one or more link references to documentobjects on the network, the displaying comprising: selecting thedisplayed link references for display based on a link relationship to acurrently displayed document object; and filtering the displayed linkreferences by attributes.
 20. The method of claim 1, wherein the linkrelationship includes a directional indicator.
 21. A system forestablishing and providing access to relationships between documentobjects stored on a network, the system comprising: one or more clientdevices that access document objects stored on the network and allowcreation of link relationships between document objects, wherein thelink relationship includes fields referencing a first and seconddocument object and the one or more client devices allow creation oflink relationships by: locating the first document object; locating thesecond document object related to the first document object; andcreating a link relationship which references the first document objectand the second document object; one or more servers that store the linkrelationships created by the client devices, allow access to one or morestored link relationships using a unique identifier for the firstdocument object and transmit one or more link relationships and linkreferences to one or more user client devices, wherein the one or morestored link relationships are separate from the first document objectand the one or more servers comprise: one or more link directories thatstore the link relationships created on the one or more client devices,wherein the one or more link directories comprise: a link relationshiptable comprising a plurality of link relationship entries, the linkrelationship entries comprising: a first field comprising a first linkreference to a primary document object of the link relationship; asecond field comprising a second link reference to a second documentobject of the link relationship; and one or more link relationshipattributes providing information that places the link relationship in acontext useful to the user; a server manager module that coordinatescommunication between the one or more link directories, a userdirectory, and the one or more client devices if those client devicesare requesting services from the server; and a user data store thatstores information regarding authorized users of the servers and linkdirectories; and one or more user client devices that receive one ormore link references from the one or more servers and display the one ormore link references to one or more users.
 22. The system of claim 21,wherein the one or more servers filter and sort the link relationshipsand link references before transmitting the link relationships and linkreferences to the client devices.
 23. The system of claim 21, whereinthe client devices filter and sort the link relationships and linkreferences after the link relationships and link references aretransmitted to the client devices from the one or more servers.
 24. Thesystem of claim 21, wherein the user data store comprises: a userdirectory, the user directory comprising one or more user data recordscontaining personal identifying information and information regardingwhich of the one or more link directories and the one or more servers auser is authorized to access; a user profile store, the user profilestore comprising one or more user profile records each containing one ormore user profiles for each authorized user of the servers and linkdirectories; and a user account store, the user account store comprisingone or more user account records each containing usage data for eachauthorized user of the servers and link directories.
 25. The system ofclaim 21, wherein the one or more client devices comprise: a clienttool, wherein the client tool comprises a graphic user interfacedisplay; a rendering tool that renders and displays document objects,the rendering tool comprising: a graphic user interface display; and adocument object network address; and a network access tool that connectsthe rendering tool and the client tool to the network.
 26. The system ofclaim 25, wherein the document object network address comprises aUniform Resource Locator.
 27. The system of claim 25, wherein the clientdevice further comprises one of: one or more link directories that storethe link relationships; a communications module that coordinatescommunication between the one or more link directories, a userdirectory, a database of user profile data, and the one or more clientdevices; and a user data store that stores information regardingauthorized users of the client tool.
 28. The system of claim 21, whereinthe one or more link directories further comprise a directionalindicator that indicates whether the link relationship between the firstlink reference to the first document object of the link relationship andthe second link reference to the second document object of the linkrelationship applies in either direction or in both directions.
 29. Thesystem of claim 28, wherein the directional indicator comprises aplurality of directional indicator fields, each directional indicatorfield corresponding to one of the one or more link relationshipattributes and indicating whether the corresponding link relationshipattribute applies in one direction or in both directions between thefirst link reference to the first document object of the linkrelationship and the second link reference to the second document objectof the link relationship.
 30. The system of claim 28, wherein the one ormore link directories further comprise: a document object tablecomprising a plurality of link reference entries, the link referenceentries comprising: a network address of the document object on thenetwork indicated by the link reference entry wherein the uniqueidentifier for a document object is the network address of the documentobject; and one or more document object attributes providing informationthat places the document object indicated by the link reference entry ina context that is useful to the user.
 31. The system of claim 30,wherein the network address comprises a Uniform Resource Locator. 32.The system of claim 30, wherein the link reference entries furthercomprise a listing of all link relationship entries in which the networkaddress of the document object indicated by the link reference entry ispresent in the first field or the second field of the link relationshipentries.
 33. The system of claim 32, wherein the network addresscomprises a Uniform Resource Locator.
 34. The system of claim 28,wherein a network address of the document object on the network includesinformation necessary to specify the location of the document object onthe network.
 35. The system of claim 34, wherein the network addresscomprises a Uniform Resource Locator.
 36. The system of claim 21,wherein the network is one or more of: a private network, a closednetwork, a public network, and a private network that is connected to apublic network.
 37. The system of claim 21, wherein the one or more linkdirectories are accessible only by a specific individual user of aclient device.
 38. The system of claim 21, wherein the one or more linkdirectories are stored on a server connected to the network by means ofa secure connection.
 39. The system of claim 21, wherein the linkrelationship includes a directional indicator.
 40. The system of claim21 wherein the one or more client devices include one or more userclient devices.
 41. A computer readable storage medium upon which isembedded instructions for carrying out a method for enabling users of anetwork to create, store, and provide access to relationships amongdocument objects stored on the network, the method comprising the stepsof: allowing creation of a link relationship between a first documentobject and a second document object, wherein the link relationshipincludes fields referencing a first and second document object and theallowing includes: locating the first document object; locating thesecond document object related to the first document object; andcreating a link relationship which references the first document objectand the second document object; storing the link relationship in one ormore link directories, wherein the storing comprises: storing a linkrelationship entry in a link relationship table, wherein the linkrelationship entry comprises fields including a first link reference tothe first document object and a second link reference to the seconddocument object; and assigning link relationship attributes to the linkrelationship entry; accessing one or more link relationships stored inthe one or more link directories using a unique identifier for the firstdocument object, wherein the one or more link directories are separatefrom the first document object; and providing a link reference to athird document object, wherein the link reference provided is determinedby identifying those one or more link relationships stored in the one ormore link directories that include the unique identifier of the firstdocument object, wherein providing a link reference includes displayingthe link reference to a user.
 42. The computer readable storage mediumof claim 41, wherein the accessing step comprises providing access onlyto authorized users.
 43. The computer readable storage medium of claim41, further comprising authorizing users of the network to perform theallowing, storing and accessing steps.
 44. The computer readable storagemedium of claim 41, wherein the allowing step comprises: a first userlocating a first document object; the first user locating a seconddocument object related to the first document object in some mannerdetermined by the first user; and the first user creating a linkrelationship which references the first document object and the seconddocument object.
 45. The computer readable storage medium of claim 44,wherein one or more of the steps of the method are accomplished byautomated procedures not requiring interaction with the user.
 46. Thecomputer readable storage medium of claim 44 further comprising:selecting a link reference to a first document object related to asecond document object that a second user is currently accessing, byidentifying those link relationships, stored in the one or more linkdirectories, that include a link reference to a network address of thesecond document object the second user is currently accessing; anddisplaying the selected link reference to the second user.
 47. Thecomputer readable storage medium of claim 46, wherein the displayingstep comprises displaying more than one link reference from one or morelink directories.
 48. The computer readable storage medium of claim 46,wherein the displaying step comprises sorting and presenting one or morelink references by the one or more link directories storing the linkreferences.
 49. The computer readable storage medium of claim 48,wherein the displaying step comprises sorting and presenting the one ormore link references by attributes of the link relationships and linkreferences.
 50. The computer readable storage medium of claim 41,wherein the storing step further comprises: setting a directionalindicator for the link relationship entry.
 51. The computer readablestorage medium of claim 50, wherein the step of storing the linkrelationship in one or more link directories further comprises: storingthe first link reference to the first document object in a documentobject table; assigning document object attributes to the first linkreference associated with the first document object; storing the secondlink reference to the second document object in the document objecttable; and assigning document object attributes to the second linkreference associated with the second document object.
 52. The computerreadable storage medium of claim 51, wherein one or more of the linkrelationship attributes are set; and a directional indicator for thelink relationship attribute is set by associating one document objectattribute for the first link reference with one document objectattribute for the second link reference.
 53. The computer readablestorage medium of claim 41, wherein the one or more link directories areaccessible only by a specific individual user of a client device. 54.The computer readable storage medium of claim 41 wherein the one or morelink directories are stored on a server connected to the network bymeans of a secure connection.
 55. The computer readable storage mediumof claim 41 further comprising assigning attributes to the linkrelationship established between the first document object and thesecond document object.
 56. The computer readable storage medium ofclaim 55 further comprising assigning attributes to a first linkreference to the first document object and a second link reference tothe second document object.
 57. The computer readable storage medium ofclaim 56 wherein the link references stored in the one or more linkdirectories is capable of being organized, sorted, searched and filteredby one or more attributes assigned to the link references.
 58. Thecomputer readable storage medium of claim 55 wherein the linkrelationship stored in the one or more link directories is capable ofbeing organized, sorted, searched and filtered by one or more attributesassigned to the link relationships.
 59. The computer readable storagemedium of claim 41, wherein the link relationship includes a directionalindicator.